I visited Domaine Comte Liger-Belair a little later in the year than has been my ‘tradition’, but this gave me the opportunity see the stunning ‘extension’ to the cuverie that has seen a crane dominate the Vosne sky-line for over 1 year. When you or I talk of an extension, we don’t really talk of the same thing(!) Louis-Michel’s extension not only provides a fabulous new space for working that (internally) shows style as well as substance, but above ground the Château du Vosne-Romanée itself is extended absolutely to match the original – okay, perhaps better than the existing building which clearly needed a little tender loving care.

Perhaps it was the later ‘viewing’ but as a group Louis-Michel’s wines did not really put on the tour-de-force display that I’ve come to expect and that really had me purring the last vintages. Clearly the cave as a whole was sullen, so I make only a few stylistic references rather than definitive tasting notes, particularly as people who tasted at the end of November were purring! Overall the volume for 2007 was down by 30% versus the 2006’s:2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée la Colombier: Wide, spicy-bread nose. A little more structure than anticipated.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée Clos du Château: Softer nose. Just a little plusher, good acidity and not a little linear. Good length.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Nuits St.Georges Les Lavières: High-toned with just a little CO2 and underneath a little cream. Nicely mineral with a good dimension of fruit and sneakily concentrated.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Chaumes: Wide and interesting nose. Some gas on the palate, width and depth. The acidity flows well into an interesting finish. The tannin is a disguised by the carbon dioxide.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Petits-Monts: Good width on the nose with some hints of cream behind powdery fruit. Lovely depth here, really extending into a fine finish. This is very good.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Brûlées: More herbs on the nose, mixed with cedar and cream. Much more linear palate and slightly higher-tones fruit. This was a whole cluster fermentation trial and is not commercially available.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Nuits St.Georges 1er Aux Cras: 75 year-old vines. Very aromatic and mineral – this is really interesting. Ripe and mouth-filling, still some carbon dioxide. Very impressive, creamy depth on show.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots: There’s an intense core of fruit on the nose. On the palate the carbon dioxide really masks a lot, but not the creamy background. I spotted hardly any tannin.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Aux Reignots: Dark fruit. Full, silky and mineral – but clearly quite tight.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Echézeaux: Wide, some high tones and a core of red fruit as the reduction departs. Supple and concentrated.2007 Comte Liger-Belair, La Romanée: An early harvest – 1st September. Aromatically closed – which is a shame – only very slightly opens the door. In the mouth I also see this as very tight – giving little away apart from its usual (luckily!) stunningly long finish.2006 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Brûlées: Also not commercial (only one barrel is made) but given how stunning I found this just over 1 year ago, we looked in on it again: Lots of spicy width and a dark fruity depth to the nose. Super in the mouth with width a-plenty and ripe tannin washing across the palate – encore super!